Since their defeat to us, Lyon were also in action on Wednesday night, drawing 1-1 away to Nantes. That wasn\u2019t enough to trouble them in the Division 1 Feminine standings though, as they remain top of the league, which they\u2019re unbeaten in, by 12 points over Paris FC.<\/p>\n
Their unbeaten domestic record extends to the Coupe de France, which they\u2019re in the final of, and the Coupe LFFP, which they won in March.<\/p>\n
Prior to last weekend, Lyon\u2019s only defeat of the season came in the Champions League. They finished the league phase second in the table, level on points with Barcelona, and came away from Meadow Park in Borehamwood with a 2-1 victory in October.<\/p>\n
So it came as a surprise when the French champions suffered a 1-0 loss away to VfL Wolfsburg in the first leg of the quarter-finals, but Lyon responded in style with a 4-0 win at home in the second leg.<\/p>\n
WHAT THE MANAGERS SAY<\/h3>\n
Slegers: <\/strong>\u201cIt\u2019s very simple, I think you can\u2019t compare the two occasions. Everything is different this year, the scenario is different as well, last time we were 2-1 down, now we\u2019re 2-1 up, so everything is different. <\/p>\n \u201cWe have to earn the right again from the very start, so I don\u2019t compare the two occasions. Yes we\u2019ve been to the city, yes I recognise this hall and the pitch, that will be there, but we have to start all over again tomorrow.\u201d – Read every word of Ren\u00e9e\u2019s pre-Lyon press conference.<\/strong><\/p>\n \n Read more<\/span> <\/p>\n Giraldez:<\/strong> “We’ve already beaten Arsenal (2-1 at Meadow Park on Matchday 1). We want to have the possession and apply high pressure. The match dynamic will be different; we’ll need to show personality at home.<\/p>\n “We haven’t changed anything this week. The priority is to raise our level, to be attentive to our game plan and to find a better balance. (We need to) improve our attacking level and be superior to the opponent to qualify.”<\/p>\n We have no fresh injury concerns following Wednesday’s 7-0 win over Leicester, but the good news is that Chloe Kelly is back in our squad.<\/p>\n For Lyon, Tabitha Chawinga and Ines Benyahia are not fit to play, but Bacha and Dumornay will be available after missing the first leg.<\/p>\n Lyon have lost three of their 10 Champions League matches against us (W6 D1), their joint most defeats against a single opponent, along with Wolfsburg.<\/p>\n We have won our last two Champions League away games against Lyon, 5-1 in the 2022\/23 group stage and 4-1 in last season\u2019s semi-final second leg; they represent the French side\u2019s two biggest losses in the competition.<\/p>\n We are looking to become the first English side to reach the Champions League final in consecutive seasons. In fact, other than ourselves last season, the only other instances of English teams reaching the final are ourselves in 2006\/07 and Chelsea in 2020\/21.<\/p>\n Lyon have only conceded one set-piece goal in the Champions League this season \u2013 only Barcelona have conceded fewer (0). In fact, across the last 23 goals they have conceded in the competition, all three set piece goals have been scored by Arsenal \u2013 two in last season\u2019s semi-final and one in the first leg of this tie.<\/p>\n Alessia Russo is the joint leading scorer in this season\u2019s Champions League with eight goals, while she\u2019s had the joint most shots (34) and most shots on target (18). She both scored and assisted in the semi-final away leg against Lyon in 2024\/25.<\/p>\n Italian referee Maria Sole Ferrieri Caputi has been appointed to take charge of Saturday\u2019s semi-final second leg. She will be assisted by Stefania Genoveffa Signorelli and Veronica Martinelli.<\/p>\n VAR will be in use for this fixture.<\/p>\n Referee:<\/strong> Maria Sole Ferrieri Caputi In the UK, this match will be shown live on BBC Two and Disney +. Elsewhere in the world, see which broadcasters are showing the game live.<\/p>\n \n Read more<\/span> <\/p>\n Copyright 2026 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We look to book our place in back-to-back UEFA Women\u2019s Champions League finals with Saturday\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arsenal-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3089\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} Every word of Ren\u00e9e’s pre-Lyon press conference <\/span>
\n <\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/article>\nTEAM NEWS<\/h3>\n
FACTS AND STATS<\/h3>\n
MATCH OFFICIALS<\/h3>\n
Assistant Referees:<\/strong> Stefania Genoveffa Signorelli and Veronica Martinelli
Fourth Official:<\/strong> Silvia Gasperotti
OUR:<\/strong> Gianluca Aureliano
Assistant VAR: <\/strong>Katalin Kulcs\u00e1r<\/p>\nHOW TO WATCH<\/h3>\n
How to watch Lyon v Arsenal Women on TV <\/span>
\n <\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n